Everyday History

It's your first time visiting Japan. You decide to go out and explore the beautiful city, then you found a small ramen shop. You order some ramen, take a bite, and it's so delicious that you loudly slurp your noodles. Back home, your parents might have given you the look for making that much noise at the table over noodles or spaghetti, but in Japan? The chef might actually smile, because you just complimented their cooking with the way you slurped the noddles. That's the fascinating thing about manners in Japan. What is considered respectful in one country can be very rude, or just really strange in another country. So, if you're ever planning to visit Japan(like I hope to one day), or you're simply curious about how cultures are in other countries, here are some everyday habits that are perfectly polite in Japan but could raise a few eyebrows or weird looks, elsewhere. First, slurping your noodles is a compliment in Japan. In many countries, making lo...

Take a walk into almost any funeral you see, anywhere in the world, and you will notice a sea of people in black clothes. You'll notice men in black suits and women in black gowns with black veils or scarfs. It automatically feels like an expected and natural thing to do in a sorrowful situation.  But here’s the question I never stop asking: Why black? Why not white or blue, or anything else? The answer isn’t just about fashion or tradition. It was also about power, emotion, and, history. The colour black started with something simple and obvious - darkness. Black is the color of the night time, darkness, and/or the absence of light. Across so many different cultures, darkness has always been linked to the unknown, the end of life, and silence. So wearing black, became a visual way of saying, something has ended or someone has passed away - like in Nigeria that we all assume someone is dead by the we see people dressed in all black. Simple as that. To understand more ab...